


A Little Lockdown

by MommyMaleficent



Series: a Dragon, a Queen, and their little Princess [7]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Coping, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infantilism, Mommy Maleficent, Non-Sexual Age Play, little Aurora, little Emma, mommy Regina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:19:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23731468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MommyMaleficent/pseuds/MommyMaleficent
Summary: Becausequarantineis a five-dollar word.
Relationships: Aurora & Emma Swan, Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Maleficent/Emma Swan, Lily | Lilith Page & Emma Swan, Lily | Lilith Page & Maleficent
Series: a Dragon, a Queen, and their little Princess [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1046322
Comments: 8
Kudos: 75





	A Little Lockdown

_Good morning Emmy ♡_  
_I love you!!_  
_Let’s have a good day, ok?_  
_Xoxo Rory_

Social distancing was a blessing and a curse.

On one hand, she got to stay home and be little as much as she wanted during the scary times. Mommy and Mama insisted she stay home so she didn’t get sick. The Savior could do a lot if it was a pandemic of people turning into toads, but a virus? Better safe than sorry.

Dad agreed wholeheartedly. He manned the station all by himself now, like the handsome, charming prince he was. His own castle with its lone ruler, ready to kick what little crime there was, if any at all.

On the other hand, she missed having playmates to be little with. She missed cuddling with Aurora for naps, having lightsaber battles with Anna, and reading books with Elsa. Hell, she even missed flipping through the storybook with Henry, trying to figure out who was who and what was what and when was when and how. _Everyone_ was under quarantine.

Well, almost everyone. The Dark Star Pharmacy was still open, and the employees were considered essential. Lily was one of them. She spent all her days cooped up in a building with people she hardly tolerated, and was forbidden to fly because if a dragon got sick, it could very well infect other magical creatures.

Or her mom.

But in spite of the restrictions, Lily wasn’t as grouchy as Emma feared she’d be. She just... accepted it and went on her way. Mama too. She seemed less troubled than Lily was. But then again, she was a lot less vocal than Lily was too. Lily joked about dying all the time since that was how she coped. Mama never said a word when it came to herself, just how it would affect those she loved. Maybe she didn’t need to.

Emma missed watching movies with Lily. She missed being held by her and feeling immensely safe. Sure, Mama held her just the same, but Mama was Mama, and Lily was Lily. There was a difference there, even if little Emma couldn’t explain it any better than that. Being hugged by Lily was like a well-loved teddy bear, and Mama was a real bear like Winnie the Pooh, even though Winnie the Pooh was technically a well-loved teddy... you know?

Mama still hugged her plenty, but Mommy hugged and kissed everyone less.

“I don’t want to risk making you sick,” she said when Emma whined. She caressed Emma’s cheek with the back of her hand instead of her palm. “Can you understand that, sweetheart?”

“I guess...” Emma mumbled, pouting.

Washed hands were the new _I love you_.

Mommy went out a lot, even though she told all the citizens to stay inside. She wore a mask when she did since she led by example. She went and got the groceries, brought Lily her lunch if she forgot it, and said hi to Dad if she saw him on the street. And Dad would pass the hi to Henry and Mom and Neal down on the family farm.

It didn’t take a big girl to see Mommy was tired, so Emma tried to keep her tantrums to a maximum of five a week when Mommy was home. As usual, Mama didn’t seem to mind her tantrums at all, but Emma erred on the side of caution just in case. She was always afraid there would come a day where the dragon inside Mama would erupt like a volcano and spew chunks of hot lava and fire all over the place. Like Yellowstone.

Emma had Mommy and Mama and sometimes Lily too, when Lily was feeling brave enough to be near her on her days off.

“It’d be just like me to not show symptoms and have it bite us all in the ass,” Lily said about a week ago. She practically jumped out of her skin when Emma flopped on the couch right next to her. “I love you, Em. Swear. But, this? Right now? Don’t. Please. Sorry.”

And she slunk off elsewhere to hide, leaving Emma to roll over from the couch to the carpet and sigh.

So, to keep from feeling too lonely while they were apart, Emma and Aurora began their ritual texts, morning, noon, and night, since they were free to be little as much as they pleased, and it pleased them very much, even if it was hard sometimes. The first one to wake up would send a good morning text to let the other know they were little and awake. Then, they would do little things together like take selfies with their favorite sippies, selfies with their Stuffed Animal of the Day, or maybe show what their caregivers were doing. Then they would video-chat and allow their stuffed animals to see each other and have their afternoon sippy cups together. And then they would nap together—as together as their cameras allowed them to be—and the one who didn’t send a good morning text would start on the goodnight text.

Aurora lived with her mom and dad, but they weren’t her caregivers. Even though they said they accepted that part of her, they didn’t really understand it. And Mulan wasn’t a _long_ ways away, but under quarantine, she may as well have been. There were so many times during the first few weeks Aurora called Emma in tears because she missed Mulan so much but couldn’t hug her or be held by her, or she felt too clingy because she missed her too much, or that she felt so disconnected from her parents even though they were _right there they couldn’t help her_. The entire thing was so _sad_. It absolutely broke Emma’s heart that she couldn’t hold her best friend, offer her cuddles, or even touch her face like Mommy does to ease her loneliness even for just a single minute.

She couldn’t even poof herself there because her magic wouldn’t let her.

She hated this pandemic. She hated the virus, hated quarantine, hated it all.

Some days she would only hear Aurora cry over the phone because Aurora didn’t want her to see what she looked like over video. Emma couldn’t decide if that was better or worse. She knew what Aurora looked like when she cried, even on her worst days, and it sparked a fire in her like... like she wanted to protect her. Be the big sister to Aurora the way Elsa was to Anna. She wanted to hold her and kiss her and make all the pain go away because she loved her so much.

She knew first-hand how crippling and annoying and just _bad_ separation anxiety could be, and she wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

“You’re so sweet to me...” Aurora sniffled when she told her, and she got on camera right away after that. She was still wiping her eyes with her sleeves. “When this is all over, I’m going to make you cupcakes, Emmy. Promise.”

Emma grinned. “Or you can make a regular cake in a cup and call it a cupcake. Because it technically is.”

Sniffing some more, Aurora laughed. “Yes! Mulan would call that very efficient, if a little strange.”

She always considered it a win when something she said could help Aurora feel better after a cry. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Emma’s love language was touch, but in these times, she had to adapt.

They all did.

Someone was always home with her, which eased her own separation anxiety very much. Big or little, but especially little, Emma _hated_ being alone when it could be helped. That was where a good bit of her tantrums came from. So Mama stayed home with her and watched her. Mama dragon guarding the nest and keeping her little one warm and safe and making sure Emma knew she was loved.

Mama picked her up like a real baby and cuddled her lots, and kissed her and tickled her and played with her. She spoke to her the way a mama speaks to her baby, with a lilting voice and lots of baby talk, and she never seemed embarrassed to say them, or repeat words Emma made up just to be silly. Mama made baby Emma her very own rattle to play with, and sometimes she would let Emma wrap her whole hand around the tip of her dragon tail and squeeze it. Sometimes, if she was feeling too tired to conjure up a tail, it was a claw on whichever hand Emma held.

That always made Emma feel very, _very_ little.

It was a running joke in the house Mama Mally made Emma feel super duper small and little because she wasn’t very good at cooking actual food, and cooking for baby Emma was easy because all she had to do was press numbers on the microwave to heat up her bottle.

Nowadays she did bake a lot of bread without burning the house down, so that was progress.

On days Aurora was actually busy and Emma was little, Mama naturally took charge of everything. She held Emma during naptime, comforted her when she cried, looked into her eyes as she fed her bottle, and changed her diaper whether she used it or not. She was good at doing silly voices when it came to reading books, but not so much when it came to making up stories with Emma’s stuffed animals.

“I’m afraid I don’t know how,” she whispered when Emma handed her a teddy bear that didn’t have a name yet. She ran her finger over its orange fur and looked up at Emma, biting her lip. “Can you teach me, Emma?”

Emma’s eyes widened and she gasped. Even _Mommy_ knew how to play.

Mama smiled. “Mamas aren’t always the teachers, dear. There are so many things a mama learns from her baby. Won’t you please teach me, my baby?”

And when Mommy came home with Lily that night, they helped Mama learn how to play too.

_♡ Goodnight, Rory!  
_ _Once again, we beat our record  
_ _for most days consecutively alive._  
_Let’s never stop._ _Sweet dreams!!  
_ _Love, Emma_


End file.
